The 4D catastrophe….Death, Disease, Destruction and now the Debt-trap….

With about two thousand people dead, millions homeless and deadly diseases spreading, mighty Indus is still furious and this death and destruction is only one side of the story. And its only the beginning. Deadlier still are events unfolding as are the stories of Government’s incompetence to deal with this situation. The floods are an excellent recipe of disaster for Pakistan as a country, if those rich elite who plundered it do not cough up whole of the looted wealth or at least a fraction of it. Pakistan’s already creaky economy has been pushed to the verge of ruin by the devastating floods of the past month. With foreign aid only now beginning to trickle in, the impoverished country has been forced to take out further loans while pleading for outstanding ones to be restructured.

Already burdened by heavy debt, the country’s economy has suffered a major setback. According to the Independent, funds will have to be poured into reconstruction efforts while many sectors of the economy, especially agriculture, will suffer losses for up to several months, if not years.

So far, the floods have covered a fifth of the country, cost at least 1,600 lives, displaced 4.6 million people, destroyed roads, bridges and schools, damaged power stations and dams, and swamped millions of acres of agricultural land. About 150,000 Pakistanis were forced to move to higher ground yesterday as water from a freshly swollen Indus River submerged dozens more towns and villages in the south. Officials expect the floods to recede across the country in the next few days as the last river torrents empty into the Arabian Sea. Survivors may find little left when they return home. Already, 600,000 people are in relief camps set up in Sindh during the past month. The floods have affected about one-fifth of Pakistan’s territory; at least six million people have been made homeless, and 20 million affected overall.

Some officials estimate that the cost of rebuilding infrastructure could be $15bn, money that Islamabad simply doesn’t have. As of July, Pakistan had a debt of $55.5bn. That figure will jump to $73bn in 2015-16, as debts that were rescheduled after 9/11, in As a result of the tragedy, the budget deficit will grow, inflation will rise, and economic growth will slow – all areas where the fund had wanted to see progress in the opposite direction.

At the same time, Islamabad has secured loans of $1bn from the World Bank and $2bn from the Asian Development Bank to help relief efforts and begin the task to rehabilitation and reconstruction. Government officials say that they were left with no option but to approach the banks as foreign aid has generated only a fraction of what’s needed. The disaster has revealed decades of infrastructural neglect that damns successive governments. However efficiently the current government may have been able to mobilize resources, the state’s capacity was woefully lacking in the first place.

Some 17 million acres of agricultural land have been submerged by the floods, which are still raging in the southern province of Sindh. Key crops including wheat, cotton and rice have been affected. Pakistan’s economy has long suffered problems because of its embarrassingly narrow tax base. Broad sections of the wealthy, including senior politicians, pay little or no tax. But Mr Sheikh said that the crisis could be an opportunity to take tough economic decisions the government has long wanted to. “We could push through a sales tax, introduce a flood surcharge on well-to-do people and get some leeway from the IMF.”

2 Comments:

Yes, this is what troubles everyone. We have gone way back ….. all will come out in open as these flood water will reach its destination ( Sea ). There will be shortage of every given thing. There are opportunists who are in waiting to cash from this situation. A mindful solution must be worked out by all who are in any authority. We have to save both the system and our brotherly relations between all four provinces. God Bless Our Country and give us a sense of responsibility.